Research Experience
by coleytaylor
Summary: In which Baz needs some experience to improve the quality of his writing. It's purely for educational purposes, you see.


Baz needed an escape. He had tried reading, but not even his favorite books would allow him to disappear tonight. The moon was shining brightly in the sky, and he would be tired the next morning, but what he really needed was to write. So, he reached for his wand and covertly cast a noise-canceling spell before reaching for his computer. Wouldn't want to wake his roommate with the typing. His bloody roommate, the one who was causing him all of this pain to begin with. Baz wasn't sure exactly what it was about him, but Simon just messed with his head. Made him feel good and bad all at once, but mostly just extremely uncomfortable.

Baz opened his writing folder. It was in the corner of his desktop, where he'd placed it in somewhat subconscious shame. He was quite proud of some of his lengthier works, but he often took great pleasure in composing short, plotless scenes that were an utter waste of time. He did not have the patience to work on one of his longer projects tonight, so he created a new file and drummed on the keyboard.

While his short scenes existed separately, Baz did recycle a few characters that he had been building for years. His favorites to work with were Theo, a dark-haired and often sullen boy, and Will, who was heroic, often to a fault, and sported soft blond hair. He wrote them falling in love, or fighting monsters, or going on adventures together. Baz wasn't feeling up to any sophisticated writing tonight. _Banal chatter it is,_ he thought darkly. He stretched his arms over his head and began to write.

Baz set the scene. Theo and Will attended boarding school, in this universe, and they were at a party with a few of their friends, some of Baz's other characters. They sat in a circle on the floor with Katie, Sophie, James, and Harry. _Now for the fun part_, he thought, and began to write the dialogue.

_ "Hey, I have an idea," Sophie said. She was acting uncharacteristically _chill, _most likely due to the copious amounts of alcohol that had passed her lips that night. "Let's play Spin the Bottle."_

_ Katie agreed rather quickly, glancing at Sophie meaningfully, and the rest of the group was quick to follow. Sophie spun first. She looked vaguely disappointed when she had to kiss James, but when she pulled away, they were both smiling tentatively._

_ They went around the circle. It was Will's turn to spin. He reached into the center of the circle, and locked eyes with Theo as he gave the bottle a deft spin. Time seemed to slow down as it rotated, coming to a halt, perhaps predictably, facing Theo. Will exhaled. He hadn't realized he had been holding his breath._

Why couldn't anyone at Watford host terrible parties at which clichéd games were played? Baz sighed. This was why he needed fiction.

_The rest of the group seemed to collectively tense. Sophie and Katie exchanged another look. Will seemed to be waiting for some sort of cue, but nothing came. Then, Theo was inching forward, awkwardly half-crawling towards Will. And then there were mere inches between them, and then Theo's lips were on his, and time slowed down all over again. _

Baz took a moment to reprimand himself for being so totally unoriginal. He found himself rather pathetic, actually. Well, at least it distracted him from Snow... Crowley. He shook his head and immersed himself in the scene once again.

_All too soon, it was over. Theo was back across the circle from him, and when he brought his eyes to the other boy's face, Theo's gaze flitted away. Will kept trying to make eye contact, to no avail. Finally, he sighed resignedly. Theo had always been rather cold towards him, but in recent months, their interactions had morphed into a sort of friendly banter. Perhaps he had misinterpreted things. _

_ Sophie must have noticed his glum demeanor, as she exchanged yet another significant look with Katie._

_ "I'm getting tired of this. Truth or dare?" She moved the bottle to the side. "Will, truth or dare? Oh, and before you get any ideas about lying to your dear friends, remember that I have a wand, and I am not afraid to use it."_

_ Will did, in fact, have something rather significant to hide, namely a not-so-tiny crush on one member of their circle, so he opted for dare. Arguably, things did not turn out any better._

"_I dare you," She paused, a calculating look on her face. Will gulped. "to snog Theo. Like, for real. What you two did earlier was pathetic. Come on, what are we, twelve?" Will rather felt like he was. He had never really kissed anyone before, other than Katie, and that had been more like kissing a wall than a person. And he hadn't felt half as nervous as he did now. He had thought that Theo sort of liked him, but after the passionless kiss they had shared earlier, he wasn't so sure. He definitely fancied Theo, though. He hoped it wasn't written all over his face as he leaned in for the second time that night to kiss the dark-haired boy._

Baz sighed. He always wound up here. He loved to write the moments leading up to a kiss, the road of uncertainty and doubt that culminated in triumph. But he always felt rather stuck when his characters were about to kiss, much less do anything beyond that. It was as if they wanted to go further, but Baz could only lead them so far. The truth was, he hadn't even had his own first kiss. Sixteen years old, and not even a peck, although he was certain at least half the students in his year, his roommate included, assumed he slept around. He was certainly absent from their room enough nights for it to be true. What he did on his nighttime strolls was perhaps a little too... unsavory for company.

Still, he would have liked to get some experience, if only to enrich his writing. It wasn't as if he could ask Dev or Niall for help practicing his snogging, they'd only laugh and jeer and quite possibly assault him with gay slurs. He ought to get some new friends. Dev and Niall were sort of the only people who put up with him, outside of Simon. Hmm, he could ask Simon for help. He suddenly had the urge to wake his roommate, damn Snow's beauty sleep. Like he needed it. And besides, Baz had to finish the story. He had a feeling he would be writing a lot more mushy scenes once he had some snogging experience. It was for the good of his writing, really. And Simon probably wouldn't be _that_ mad, once Baz told him why he had woken him up. Heroic Snow, always ready to save the day.

Baz was sufficiently psyched up. It was late, and his thinking may have been somewhat impaired by sleep deprivation, but it seemed like an excellent idea when he slowly slid out of bed and crept across the room. He stood for a moment beside Snow's sleeping form, admiring his soft expression in the dark. Then he realized exactly how creepy he was being and shook his roommate awake.

"Simon. Snow, wake up. This is important."

"What, what's– Baz? Are you alright? Are you hurt?" He went from groggily inquisitive to frantic and awake.

"No, nothing's wrong. I need you to kiss me."

Simon wrinkled his brow, and shook his head, sitting up. "Sorry, what?"

"I need you to kiss me," Baz repeated, hurried and businesslike.

"Er... Okay." Well. That had been easier than Baz expected. He took a step back so that Simon would have room to stand up. Simon did, and they were standing so close to each other that Baz's first instinct was to step back, but he forced himself to stand his ground and look into Simon's eyes. Simon stared back, and slowly, achingly slowly, brought his lips to Baz's. It was a feather-light touch, over almost before it started.

"Was that good enough?"

"No, you idiot, really _kiss me_." Simon did. He kissed Baz like he was trying to tell him something, and like he would never get the chance to do this again. Like they would never get to lock lips outside of this sleepy stupor and he wanted to make the most of it while he could. It was better than Baz had imagined, and so different from all the times he had tried to write it for his characters. He would definitely have to do some rewrites. _I should have researched this years ago_, he thought, which was definitely not code for _I should have started snogging Snow years ago_. The uncomfortable feeling from before was somehow both magnified and completely fixed, and he felt powerfully right.

An eternity or a nanosecond later–Baz couldn't tell which–they broke apart. It was awkward, looking at his roommate after this, but he supposed it would have been worse had this been in broad daylight. As it was, Simon looked exhausted. Baz could wait until the morning to talk about this if Snow wanted to go back to bed. Baz, however, had no chance of sleeping now.

Snow gave him a final confused look and stumbled back to bed. It occurred to Baz that he would probably be able to persuade Simon that this had been a dream if he was so inclined in the morning, but, strangely enough, he didn't think he'd want to. Baz certainly didn't want to forget what had happened, and he didn't want Simon to either.

Baz heard deep and even breaths coming from the other side of the room, signaling that Simon had fallen asleep once again. He opened his computer for the second time that night. He was quite embarrassed to admit to himself that he was almost as excited for Will and Theo to have a proper makeout session as he had been for himself and Simon to do so. He scanned the document to see where he had left off, but he couldn't quite focus. This snogging experience was supposed to enhance his writing, not distract him from it. But he sighed, and put away his laptop. Baz closed his eyes and replayed the last few minutes in his head until he finally drifted off to sleep, just as the sun was beginning to creep above the horizon.

Far too soon, he was being shaken awake. He opened his eyes to see a head of shaggy blond hair above him, and a pair of heroic blue eyes. He sort of wanted to grin like an idiot, but instead he groaned.

"Baz, can I use your laptop? I have a paper due..."

He groaned again in response, rolling over on his back.

"Thanks." Baz slipped back into unconsciousness. It was a Saturday, and he knew Simon would wake him again at some point, so as not to let him sleep the day away. He always acted affronted when his roommate did this, but he did appreciate it. Snow was always looking out for him, whether he asked for it or not.

After what he assumed to be several hours, Baz awoke again of his own accord. He was rather surprised that Snow had not waken him, especially considering his roommate was merely sitting cross-legged on his own bed, studiously reading something on Baz's laptop.

"Snow. Are you going to be done with my computer any time soon?"

"Actually, Baz, I was wondering..." Had Baz left the file open last night? Had that been what was on the screen when Simon turned the computer on? Oh, Aleister Crowley, _had he read it?_ Based on the odd look on his face, he had. And judging from how high his eyebrows were on his forehead, he had not read just the one story.

"Ah, yes, you must be wondering about the. Er. Fiction?" Gone was his usual eloquence. There was only one person who could make him trip over his words like this.

"These characters... I have rather a lot in common with Will... and you with Theo..."

"Well, they say write what you know," he said, rather sheepishly. _Sheepishly._ _Basilton, get your shit together._ "I appreciate your assistance from last night. I hope to use the experience to enhance my works."

"Don't try to dodge this. Wait, last night– That actually happened? That wasn't just a dream? You, me–"

"Yes, Snow. What, is this the sort of thing that you normally dream about?" He was taken aback by Simon's furious blush, but he was also unsurprised. He cocked an eyebrow.

"Well, _you're_ practically writing about _us_, getting together in all sorts of different scenarios," he spluttered. Although Baz was loath to admit it, Snow had a point. Baz had been so focused on these two characters, making them–or letting them, he always liked to think he merely recorded what they did–fall in love time and time again, that he hadn't seen what was right in front of them.

"They're not _exactly _like us," he said. "For example, they always need an overused trope to do this." And for the second time in twenty-four hours, he kissed his roommate.

Later, they sat side-by-side on the floor. It was the best kind of lazy Saturday, and they were still in their pajamas, leaning against each other. Baz broke the silence.

"So, what do you think of my writing?" he asked, teasingly.

"The ones not about Theo and Will are quite good," Simon replied. "But the ones with them are revoltingly soppy. And terribly clichéd." Baz tried to look affronted, but he looked more revoltingly soppy.

"Well, we've clearly established that that's exactly what I want in a relationship."

"And what did you mean about 'using the experience to enhance your work?'"

"I can have them snog properly now. Now that I know what it's like." He pressed a kiss to the top of Simon's head, relishing the feel of his soft curls against his face.

Simon reacted predictably, shocked at Baz's lack of experience.

"So, would you ever write anything about your characters doing... well, more than that?"

"I'd consider it," Baz answered, raising his eyebrows seductively. "I mean, I'd have to try it out first."


End file.
